View full sizeThe magazine Oxford American is putting a spotlight on Alabama musicians.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — What is the sound of Alabama? The plaintive twang of Hank Williams? The silky baritone of Nat "King" Cole? The otherworldly bleats and off-beats of Sun Ra? The gut-bucket soul of "Wicked" Wilson Pickett? The earthy enveloping warmth of Odetta? The pseudo-island lilt of son-of-the-beach Jimmy Buffett? The ecstatic pop flame of Martha Reeves? The psychedelic doo-wop-meets-R&B of The Temptations?

The heart-wrenching angst of Hugh Martin's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"? The punkabilly of The Dexateens? The ineffable oddity of the Rev. Fred Lane? The literate growl of The Drive-By Truckers?

Well, yeah.

All that and more.

Pity Marc Smirnoff, editor of the Oxford American, tasked with trying to pin that down. The latest edition of the Oxford, Miss.-based magazine, now out on racks, tried to fit the sound of Alabama on one disc.

The seams burst, so the editors also put together an "alternate universe" Alabama compilation, with songs they wished they could have included, and another list of the 15 greatest contemporary Alabama artists, including Tuscaloosa's Dexateens at No. 1, on their website.

And all that without including most of the legends listed above.

"With Alabama music, it's easy to think about the big names: Hank Williams, Dinah Washington, Sun Ra ... right off the bat, there's the diversity in gender, in race, in style," Smirnoff said.

In continuing research, a process that covered about two years, the editors and writers uncovered so much, "so many obscurities, that when you listen to them, many sound like they should have been radio hits. Just because they're not known doesn't mean they're not great."

Uncovering hidden treasures has been the goal behind the annual music editions since the magazine started them in 1996.

"We feel like there's already a lot of magazines, a lot of blogs that focus on the greats, that focus on new music, so we feel like we can be of more service with old-school musicians," Smirnoff said. "All these various musical genres came from the South — jazz, blues, country, R&B, soul, gospel — and are therefore part of the playground."

"Rather than paying attention to the names you already know, we pay attention to the ones you don't," he said.

That's not to say they're seeking obscurity for obscurity's sake. The magazine wants to bring the thrill of discovery to its readers and listeners.

So the disc that comes with the magazine includes Ralph "Soul" Jackson, the headliner at the first of four planned Oxford American concerts, at Birmingham's Alabama Theatre, but not Wilson Pickett. Mary Gresham, who'll also perform at that show, but not Martha Reeves. The Gosdin Brothers, but not The Louvin Brothers. The Rev. Fred Lane and Ron Pate's Debonairs, but not Sun Ra. The Secret Sisters, who may be on the verge of a major breakthrough with their debut disc, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," produced by T-Bone Burnett, but not Emmylou Harris.

"We're very non-academic about it. It's not that these songs are important — we need to sit down and study them — beyond having historic merit. They have to play well at a party," Smirnoff said.

"The aim of all this music, even blues music, as the great Alabama writer Albert Murray pointed out, was to get people to dance, to help people not think about their bad times, to lift people into another space for a bit."

The editors like to test songs on the college interns at the magazine, who pride themselves on their love of music, their openness, but generally only know music from the immediate past. So when Smirnoff brings out a Ralph "Soul" Jackson, it's important they not hear a nostalgia act, but "hot-sounding, in-the-moment soul."

"If you're just open to giving something a fair shake, it's amazing the amount of music you can find in Alabama," he said. "A lot of people think of Hank Williams and country music; or Dinah Washington, Nat 'King' Cole and Sun Ra and jazz — and those three in themselves represent a wide spectrum — or W.C. Handy or Johnny Shines and the blues. All those things are true and great and important."

Alabama also has punk and rock and singer-songwriters and hard-to-classify avant-garde players.

"But what is Alabama the king and queen of? Soul music. Alabama's soul legacy can go head-to-head with that of Memphis, New York, Detroit, any of the great soul capitols."

Though he's lived in Mississippi and worked at the Oxford American since 1987, "the bloody beginning," transplanted Californian Smirnoff still feels like he's on the outside looking in at his adopted South.

"The great advantage in being an outsider is that the region still seems fresh to me, every day. It's kind of weird, but I still experience cultural shock. I think that perspective allows me to help translate to others," he said.

It's not just nostalgia. Any of the 15 contemporary artists on the magazine's website — including the Dexateens, Mobile native Will Kimbrough, Florence's Pine Hill Haints, Frankville's Shelby Lynne, Birmingham's Azure Ray — could be the next musician to change your life, he said.

"As an outsider, I think a lot of Southerners have a chip on their shoulder because of the way they're abused to this day on the 'Letterman' show, the 'Leno' show, jokes about the idiotic or benighted South," Smirnoff said. "Yet there's this love-hate relationship with New York and Hollywood: We love 'em when they focus the cameras on us. But even that is wrong because we're letting them set the agenda."

A handful of examples of this phenomenon showed up on "American Idol," in the form of Bo Bice, Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard, all of whom struggled for years to draw crowds to Alabama shows, only to find widespread acceptance once a panel of outsiders anointed them.

"We've been bashed so much, taken so many cheap shots, that we feel now (New York and Hollywood are) still the first and last word when it comes to telling us what is good or not," Smirnoff said.

"In fact, we should take credit for this incredible music culture that is among us; we don't need New York or Hollywood to put their stamp of approval on it. Take ownership of that and be proud of it."